PAIN RELIEF

Pain Management

How to cope with pain: Feel better with these 3 tricks to help you think less and feel better

Pain ManagementHow to cope with pain: Feel better with these 3 tricks to help you think less and feel better

Heath Robbins / Photonica /Getty Images

Childbirth. Menstrual cramps. Bikini wax. You'd think women would have solved the problem of pain right after giving the apple to Adam. Instead, studies show that men handle pain better because they focus only on its physical effects. "For women, pain is not just a sensory experience," says Ed Keogh, Ph.D., a psychologist and leading pain researcher at the University of Bath in England. "Emotions and psychology all have an impact." Translation: We overthink it. So take a tip from the guys and stop being so thoughtful. Here are three ways to distract yourself the next time the pain sets in.

The relief: Rent Wedding Crashers tonight.The reason: The pain threshold of female subjects increased and remained elevated for 20 minutes after watching a funny video clip, according to a new study in the International Journal of Humor Research. Like exercise, laughter releases endorphins — morphine-like molecules produced by the body to clobber pain. The more you laugh, the higher your pain tolerance.When to use it: Cramps, joint pain, postsurgery.

The relief: Listen to yourself on your iPod.The reason: Brain music therapy (BMT) — a new procedure that translates an image of your brain waves when you're relaxed into a custom CD of classical music — combats pain because your brain knows your best soothing patterns, says Galina Mindlin, M.D., Ph.D., a psychiatrist and BMT pioneer. (Find out more at brainmusictreatment.com.) If that's too big a leap, a little John Mayer — or any music that relaxes you — will help reduce pain, says Marion Good, Ph.D., a music therapy researcher at Case Western Reserve University. When to use it: At the dentist, bikini wax.